It's now done. As of today, 04/29/08, Scottish & Newcastle PLC is no more. Share holders of record will receive 8 GBP for each share.

And yes, I know this was announced a while ago. I was going to add this to that thread, but it is now locked. http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi This is the day that Scottish & Newcastle PLC is no longer a company. Their stocks will no longer trade. The sale is final.

Scottish and Newcastle and the various companies and breweries that they swallowed and closed are responsible for seriously damaging the pub and beer scene in Britain.

yes it is sad that some beers will no longer exist and they are the last historical link to a brewing heritage, but that is nothing compared to the number of small and regional breweries that they decimated on their quest to make money, control the market and appease their greedy shareholders. I for one am not sad to see them go.

Micro breweries, small breweries and regionals who care about what they put in their beer, and supply the customer with what they want, rather than what they think they should want are flourishing in Britain. The big brewers are reporting slumps in beer sales.... Years and years of dumbing down beers, cutting corners and profiteering have finally taken their toll.

Ok, I know a bit more about this and it gets worse! They have been taken over by Heineken. Ok, one big brewer for another, but they own Caledonian, a great scottish brewery, who in turn own harviestoun, an even better scottish brewery who make some of my favourite beer. They say that they are going to allow these breweries to continue to operate as stand alone companies.... but I'm worried. I'd hate them to shut down these award winning breweries (both have won champion beer of britain) or to dumb down their recipes to save a few quid!

Micro breweries, small breweries and regionals who care about what they put in their beer, and supply the customer with what they want, rather than what they think they should want are flourishing in Britain. The big brewers are reporting slumps in beer sales.... Years and years of dumbing down beers, cutting corners and profiteering have finally taken their toll.

Nothing new here, guys, and certainly not a "revolution." This has been a feature of this industry since it became an industry - literally, for centuries. Scottish and Newcastle itself was formed by a corporate merger. That's not to say it's good for the consumer - corporate mergers usually aren't good for anyone but management and the investors - but there is no new trend developing. It's always been this way.

I'm re-reading Michael Jackson's "Thriller," - er, I mean, "Beer Companion," and he does a very nice job of describing the evolution of many companies. It's amazing how many brewhouses in the United States, for example, were purchased from defunct breweries in Germany or elsewhere.

I'll leave the U.K. to Jolly, as I have no firsthand knowledge, but here in the U.S., we were down to a few dozen breweries of all sizes in the late seventies. Now we have over a thousand. There's your trend, and it's a good one.

Micros are really taking off here, which is great. But the biggest threats to good beer here are the pubco's (giant companies that own loads of pubs) and the supermarkets.

Pubcos charge pub landlords high rent and insist that they buy beer from their list which the charge over the wholesale cost for. They also negotiate cut price bulk deals on these beers so make profit on it twice as it were. Due to the high price the pubs are charged for their beer they are forced to charge a high price per pint to keep afloat. As a result fewer people chose to drink in a pub because of the price so they go to the supermarket to buy dirt cheap euro fizz. The Supermarkets are guilty of selling beer/booze at seriously low prices which no pub or small retailer could hope to compete with, and are also contributing, some might say, to the binge drinking culture that seems to be developing here.

It's all a sorry state of affairs driven by greed.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Free houses are free to sell and buy whatever beer they like, and as a result can offer fairly priced, top quality real ale. The local brewers are getting a lot of support from the public, these pubs and SIBA, a great organisation. CAMRA also do their bit. Overall the future of real ale and brewing in Britain is good, but the future of the pub is quite a scary one.

On a high note - Youngs-Wells (the merged company of Charles Wells and Youngs) have anounced that all their Youngs bottled beers are to be bottle conditioned. Their Utterly delicious Youngs special London Ale already is and is probably one of the finest beers on the market, so it would be great to be able to have some of their other top class cask beers in bottle conditioned form. The Pasteurised, filtered versions really are quite noxious.

I have found that almost all bottle British beers I get here are that way, with the sole exception of Fuller's, who dates their bottles. Even with Fuller's, its best to subtract a couple of months off the "Best Before" date.

I don't lament S&N being gobbled up...seems that Old Peculier went downhill after they gobbled up Theakston's.

I hope they don't touch Caledonian (or Harviestoun for that matter). The Deuchars IPA has to be one of the best beers I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. Would hate to see that beer changed in the name of corporate profit.

My experience with bottle conditioned homebrews is excellent. What is with the need to filter and pasteurize beer? Is it an ascetics thing only? I have only rarely seen bottle conditioned beer "go off," so pasteurization does not strike me a a huge draw.

In other words, why don't we see many bottle conditioned beers on the market? I recall talking to a Coopers salesman at a conferance. I told him that I thought it was courageous that they bottle condition their beers. He said that he didn't think so as they have always bottled that way.

Dan, I totally agree. I think it is ascetics, that and an ignorant consumer. I think that bottle conditioning technology has come a long way. Youngs beers have barely any sediment, and what there is stays put at the bottom of the bottle. Also the condition is absolutely perfect so now they have the process right to appease the dumb consumers they can confidently release the beers in the form they should be.

I really hope more brewers follow suit. I simply do not buy bottled beers unless they are bottle conditoned (with the exception of Harveistoun who keep their pasteurisation extremely low and bottle with less co2). It seems such a shame to spend all that time and effort crafting a top quality beer only to cook it. Madness!